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[Guide] Tips for Newer GSF Players


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THIS IS NOT CURRENT AS OF 5.5

 

THE NEW GUIDE IS AVAILABLE HERE

 

Some of the information is still good, but in general anything I had to say about Strikes and missiles is wrong now. RFL also isn't complete trash anymore.

 

Look for a new, more detailed guide as soon as I have a solid idea of where things stand and enough sleep to manage writing something.

 

Until then, check

.

 

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Hi! I'm Dak (better known in game as Sriia or Zyrieas). Lately, I feel like I see a lot of the same mistakes from newer players. I always try to say something about it when I see it, but that means I end up saying something all the time. I also get a lot of the same questions from newer players.

 

I have a couple days of sub time left, and decided: hey, why not post a guide? I know this forum has several guides already, but this one is a bit more limited in scope, and it addresses just the things I see too much or get asked about. A couple of these are just my opinion, but I've made sure to explain my reasoning under each item, opinion or not.

 

Because I plan to let my subscription lapse again, I've cross-posted this guide to the Ebon Hawk Community forums. If for some reason I decide to update it, updates will be posted there. (Edit: Currently subbed again, but this could change any time. The guide is up to date right now.)

 

General tips are first, followed by class specific tips in the sections below that.

 

 

General Tips

 

Read the other guides.

As soon as you're done here - and possibly before - you should check out the other very helpful guides available in this forum. Most are much more in depth than this one is. Start with Stasie's Galactic Starfighter Guide and be sure to check the other guides that are linked there. Both Pincer's and Despon's guides are good beginner guides too. We say a lot of the same things, but we each took a different angle of approach and you can get something helpful from each of these.

 

Then go check out the GSF School Youtube channel.

 

Join the GSF channel to find help and/or groups.

On most servers, this channel is just [gsf]. Join it by typing: "/cjoin gsf". People in this channel are happy to help you learn how to play. Note that you can add new tabs or change chat channel colors: right click on the tabs at the top and choose "Create New Tab" or "Chat Settings." From the Chat Settings menu you can change the color of any channel and choose which tabs they are displayed on.

 

Join the (unofficial) GSF Community Discord Server

We also have a Discord server! It's open to anyone, and we have players from every server. You can use this resource to ask for help, find players on your server, find groups, or just chat about the game. There are also several voice channels that are open to any group, anytime.

 

You're going to die a lot at first. That's okay.

I understand that it's frustrating to be the new guy. A lot of the people who play this game have been playing it since GSF launched, and they happen to be very good at it. As with any PVP game, it's going to take time for you to learn the mechanics. Improve your chances by looking for a group in your server's GSF channel and asking for help. You might benefit from watching some of the gameplay videos that are out there. Drakolich has some good ones, including some good tutorials. The GSF School channel is also a great source of information and I can't recommend it enough.

 

When something kills you, pay attention to what happened. Try to avoid dying the same way in the future. If you're ever unsure of how or why you died, ask! Most of us are happy to help, because we want you to like this game as much as we do.

 

Spend the 20k Fleet Requisition from the intro quest on a Rampart/Razorwire, a Quarrel/Mangler, a Flashfire/Sting, and crew members you need for your build.

The devs recently updated the intro quest so that you can get more for the intro quest. You want these three ships on your bar from the very beginning. These three are the major meta ships, and you will want to have them so you can earn req on them even if you don't want to play them yet. Also pick up crew members for your build (check Stasie's guide if you need help with this). Once you have the ships you want to unlock and the crew members, consider getting the right components for each slot with your remaining Fleet requisition, but be careful how much you spend.

 

Always remember to pick up the daily/weekly GSF missions.

This will help you upgrade your ships faster.

 

Get rid of Rapid Fire Lasers ASAP.

It sucks, but for some reason the devs give you the worst possible weapon on the starter ships. Switch to something else as soon as you can and remember that there are plenty of build guides available. In fact...

 

Don't just upgrade the stock components!

In general, you want to change a few of the components that come on each ship. Most of them have odd or unusable choices to start with. Stasie's guide is a good place to check for builds that actually work.

 

Only fire at targets that are in range, and remember to shoot at the lead indicator, not the ship itself.

If your accuracy is consistently under 5%, this tip is for you. The lead indicator changes color from grey to red when you're in range.

 

Turn down mouse sensitivity in Windows.

Most of the time, you're going to find that this will help. I don't know why you can't adjust sensitivity in game, but you can't. This is the best way to work around that limitation. You can always change it back when you aren't playing, though I've found that I don't have to turn it down that much.

 

Skill > Gear

Don't make the mistake of thinking that you're being outclassed simply because of upgrades. Having the right components is important, but it doesn't cost very much requisition to get them. Upgrades to those components help, but they really only matter in a situation where skill is comparable. It is possible to dominate a game in a stock ship, and there are players on this forum who have done so.

 

No, [insert class here] is not overpowered or impossible to kill. You just haven't learned how yet.

There is a way to beat every ship in the game. Nothing is invincible. If you want help learning to deal with a specific type of ship, just ask! We're happy to help around here.

 

Generally speaking: scouts counter gunships, gunships counter bombers, bombers counter scouts. This doesn't mean that picking the counter means you're going to win, however. If you don't know what you're doing, you're still going to get killed.

 

Spacebar to boost.

This one shouldn't need to be said, but a lot of new players just don't know how to do this for some reason. I see this all the time.

 

Take the time to read the information in game about Starfighter and check the key binds so you know what the controls are.

There aren't that many controls in game, but there are enough that you may not realize it's possible to do something until you see that there's a default key for it.

 

Stay very close to satellites to capture or prevent your team from losing them.

This is another one that shouldn't need to be said, but new players struggle with this. The capture range is actually very small, so stay inside the fins. If you're the only one on your team near a contested satellite (you can tell it's contested if it's flashing on the UI), stay on it as long as you can. If your choices are fly away from the node or die, you should choose to die. The couple of seconds you buy might be long enough for someone else to get there.

 

Learn where Damage Overcharge (DO) spawns in Team Deathmatch, and pay attention to who has it.

You might think there are no objectives in TDM. You would be wrong. Damage Overcharge is a powerup that doubles the damage of any ship that picks it up. They have predictable spawn locations, and you should take the time to learn where they spawn. If possible, let the better players on your team get this powerup, but it's okay to snag it if it means preventing the other team from getting it. Watch for the big red/green text to pop up to tell you who picked up DO. If it's a red name, immediately tab target to locate them so you can avoid them. Drakolich posted a very helpful guide that can help you learn where these spawn.

 

 

Spend a little time in the tutorial practicing flying around, locking on missiles, and generally learning how the game is played.

No, it's not a great tutorial, but it's better than nothing. Access the tutorial by clicking on the '?' icon on the top right of the GSF hangar window (the window you queue from).

 

Strike Fighters are underpowered.

I know, the flavor text makes them sound useful, but they really aren't. They're currently underpowered compared to the other ships available to you. This might change eventually. Until it does, fly a scout, a bomber, or a gunship.

 

Copilot Choice

Specifically, don't use hydrospanner. It sounds great, right? The trouble is that it only repairs 245 hull damage, and it needs six seconds to do that. Generally speaking, this is acceptable only on a Charged Plating bomber. On a scout, a strike, or a gunship, you would be better served by running Wingman for accuracy. If you absolutely must have a defensive cooldown, run Running Interference instead (particularly on scouts or gunships). Damage you prevent is better than damage you repair in all cases.

 

Your choices for the copilot slot are based on the crew members you pick for the other four slots. If you don't see the Copilot you want, make sure you have them selected under one of the other categories.

 

Accuracy and Evasion are a large part of this game.

Sometimes your shots miss. Sometimes that's your fault, but there are times when you will miss simply because your target has very high evasion. The counter to evasion is accuracy. In general, you want to get as much accuracy as you can. Check the Offensive crew members and make sure the one you're using has the Pinpointing passive, and, as I said above, run Wingman if you can.

 

Don't fly in a straight line while someone is shooting you.

By varying your course (and to a lesser extent speed; you want to be boosting away in general) you make it harder for anyone to hit you. Practice this. Your goal should be to get to an asteroid or a satellite or some other obstacle you can use to try to break line of sight.

 

Check who shot you with R, and cycle targets with Tab.

These are the default keybinds, and you can change them if you want. You should get in the habit of cycling targets to have a quick look at what's going on in the match.

 

Line of sight is important.

If you can find some sort of obstacle (a rock, a satellite, a piece of debris) to fly very close to when someone is shooting at you, you can make it difficult or impossible for them to hit you. This is particularly useful against gunships or long lock missiles. Remember that you can tap the 'C' key to take a look at your current target to verify that they don't have LoS.

 

Watch for (and use) friendly hyperspace beacons. Hunt down the other team's beacons.

Beacons give you a place to spawn that is much closer to the objectives. In domination (particularly Denon), hyperspace beacons are very important. Use them if they are available, and destroy any hyperspace beacons that you see. Check the enemy team's bombers for the Hyperspace Beacon buff icon. If you see it, someone should go find the beacon.

 

For upgrades that have two options, you can only choose one (but you can change your mind later).

For example, on Heavy Laser Cannon, the upgrade at tier 4 is either "Improved Tracking and Critical Hit Chance" OR "Ignore Armor". Choose one or the other, and remember that you can change your mind at any time for no additional requisition cost.

 

Take Ignore Armor on any weapon that has this talent.

In GSF, armor penetration is a binary choice. Either you have it or you don't. This allows your weapons to ignore a target's Damage Reduction. Damage Reduction is common on bombers, so ensuring that you have some sort of armor penetration available will help you kill them faster. Satellite turrets are also armored. Note that rocket pods have armor pen as the first upgrade.

 

Ion Missile is hilariously bad.

Yeah. Don't run this.

 

Practice power management.

By default, this is on F1 - F4. F1 is power to weapons. Use this if you are shooting at something. F2 is power to shields. Use this when you need your shields to recharge quickly, but remember that shields do not regen while you're under fire, and make sure you swap back to something else pretty quickly. F3 is power to engines. If you're boosting and/or you need to regen engine power, this is where you should be. F4 is balanced, but you shouldn't be spending any time on this setting. I find that I spend most of my time with power to engines.

 

Consider saving your daily/weekly req tokens until you have the ships you want.

If you hold onto your daily tokens, you can pop them all at once when you're done buying ships for a while and have a nice boost on the ships you held them for.

 

Play a little of everything.

By learning to play any type of ship, you also learn how to beat them. It's much easier to understand what the weaknesses of a class are when you're familiar with the class. It also means you have more options if someone plays the counter to your preferred ship type.

 

 

 

Gunship Tips

 

Zoom out. All the way. Every time.

Zooming in doesn't offer any advantage in terms of game mechanics, and it's easier to hit targets if you're zoomed out all the way. This should be habit.

 

Fortress Shield is a trap. Run Distortion Field or Feedback Shield instead.

I see a lot of gunships running Fortress Shield. This is the worst choice you could make. The usual argument is that it lets you tank things. This is true (though shield piercing exists)... until you move. And you will have to move. Other ships are capable of significant damage output, so either you move, or you die. The trouble with Fortress shield is: when you move, you lose all of the shields it added, and this is subtracted from the shields you have left, whether you took damage or not. You might very well find yourself trying to run with no shields at all, and that makes you an easy kill. You can avoid that by not running, but... well, that also makes you an easy kill.

 

Distortion Field is a better defense in general, and it has the added bonus of giving you an extra missile break when it's mastered. Feedback Shield is an interesting counter to a determined scout, but keep in mind that it leaves you vulnerable against multiple opponents as well as other gunships.

 

Plasma Rail is inferior to Ion and/or Slug.

Ion and Slug go really well together. Ion has the added advantage of having an AOE talent once you put some req into it. This lets you clear mines, and that's something that Plasma just can't do. Plasma does have a debuff, but since Slug has Armor Penetration anyway, the debuff is largely unhelpful to the gunship that applies it. Plasma is also less accurate; you will miss more shots with it. Add to that the fact that DoTs in GSF are underpowered anyway (they tick on the shield arc that's facing the player that applies them, so all you have to do is turn around) and there's no reason to use Plasma on any ship that can run Ion and/or Slug. Period.

 

Strafe to take advantage of LoS.

This is especially helpful when fighting other gunships. Strafe while you're charging. By default, this is bound to shift + WASD.

 

The Comet Breaker/Dustmaker is a really bad ship.

It has some terrible component options. If you want to fly a hybrid gunship, try a Condor/Jurgoran instead.

 

You want Wingman, not Hydrospanner.

Hydrospanner on a gunship is never right. Ever. It doesn't keep you alive for long enough to matter. Wingman allows you to actually hit the scout that wants to kill you. Run Wingman.

 

Prioritize getting AOE on ion early and use it to clear mines for teammates.

Ion AOE ignores LOS. It's a key upgrade on the T1 GS and a huge help in any domination match, since it allows you to clear mines easily and quickly. Similarly, armor ignore on slug is very important vs charged plating bombers. Get that early as well.

 

 

 

Bomber Tips

 

Ion Mines and Seeker Mines have no place on a Rampart/Razorwire.

Both are really bad mines on a Minelayer. I know, you think they stack really well. They don't. Run Seismic Mines and either Concussion or Interdiction mines instead.

 

Choose "Refill Ammunition" as the T3 talent on Repair Drone on a Warcarrier/Legion.

The other talent, Shield Restoration, doesn't help you, and it doesn't help your team either. The shield regen only restores 225 shields every three seconds. One hit from stock RFL - the worst weapon in the game - is just under 200 damage. It won't even soak up more than one hit from the worst weapon. Ammo, on the other hand, keeps the scouts on your team supplied with pods, and pods are a very efficient way to kill gunships. Gunships are good at killing bombers - that is, you. By running ammo on your repair drone, you provide your team with the tools they need to help keep you alive long enough for your repair drone to matter.

 

Additionally, your healing becomes less valuable as a match goes on if you don't have the ammo refill talent. When a scout or a strike runs out of ammo, they have to choose between playing with a greatly reduced damage potential or self destructing. This could make a difference in a close game.

 

Choose the Railgun Drone or the Interdiction Drone on a Warcarrier/Legion.

Interdiction drone has a place, but, in general, new players will get the most use out of the Railgun Drone. It ignores evasion, which is the primary defense of scouts. It gives your team something to run to, because it forces someone chasing to break off long enough to deal with the drone. If a Railgun Drone fires, it hits something 100% of the time. The Missile Drone has a short range, and it shares the same problem that all missile weapons have: missiles that aren't clusters are underpowered. A lot of ships in the current meta have two missile breaks, so it isn't going to hit something very often even when it does get to launch a missile.

 

Proton Torpedoes don't belong on a bomber.

Your job is area denial or support. A protorp is an offensive weapon, and one that almost never lands. Even if you could land one, you yourself have no missile break (unless you're in a Decimus) and you leave yourself vulnerable to missile locks if you chase down a target long enough to even launch a protorp. On a Rampart/Razorwire, you want seismic mines instead. On a Warcarrier/Legion, you want seeker mines.

 

A bomber that is moving is hard to kill.

Moving keeps you out of line of sight. Yes, you can hide inside of your own mines and drones, but this just makes you an easy kill. Force the player that wants to kill you to chase and drop mines as you go; don't give them a free pass to shoot you. The exception to this is when you need to LoS a gunship.

 

Stagger your mines.

That is, don't drop both of your mines at the same time. There are times when you might want to, but generally you will want to space them out a little bit. Don't stack seeker mines on top of each other, either. If they don't activate at the same time, you can sometimes catch someone with one after they blow their missile breaks.

 

Make sure you have enough engine power to get to the satellite.

Make sure you have power to engines, and hang back a bit so you have full engines before you try to get to a node. You're most vulnerable on approach, so you want your approach to take as little time as possible.

 

A minelayer (Rampart/Razorwire) in Deathmatch is a free kill.

A minelayer specializes in area denial - and it's a fairly small area. In Team Deathmatch, the other team has no reason to fly into the small area you want to control, so your offensive potential is extremely limited. Add to that the fact that you have no missile breaks or evasion, and you're going to die quickly. If you want to play a bomber in Deathmatch, try a Warcarrier/Legion instead.

 

 

 

Scout Tips

 

 

Targeting Telemetry is your friend.

As stated above, the more accuracy you can get, the better.

 

Stack Evasion.

You also want as much evasion as you can get, as this is your defense. Distortion Field and Lightweight Armor are the way to go in most cases. There are other builds that sacrifice Distortion Field, but you should learn the game before you try to start playing with component choices.

 

Watch out for mines and drones.

Railgun drones in particular pose a threat to you, because they have a 100% chance to hit if they fire. If you see one, make sure you kill it. Be careful about flying into mine fields, and kill the mines before they arm or before you're in range if you can. You don't have the ability to tank mines, so don't try.

 

When facing a gunship line, watch your cooldowns and approach.. Don't, under any circumstances, charge a gunship line from the front. This is really only a TDM tactic, but it's not hard to counter. Play a scout, grab powerups on your way, and circle around behind the gunship line. Save your cooldowns until you're in the fight, and plan your escape route ahead of time.

 

By doing it this way, you force the gunships on the enemy team to move, or you kill them. Even if you can't kill them, you made them stop shooting, and that's a contribution.

 

Get Tensor Field on a Spearpoint/Bloodmark.

Tensor Field is the unique ability that this type of scout offers. If you aren't going to run it, there isn't any reason to play this type of scout over one of the others.

 

Choose "Refill Ammunition" as the T3 talent on Repair Drone on a Spearpoint/Bloodmark

The other talent, Shield Restoration, doesn't help you, and it doesn't help your team either. The shield regen only restores 225 shields every three seconds. One hit from stock RFL - the worst weapon in the game - is just under 200 damage. It won't even soak up more than one hit from the worst weapon. Ammo, on the other hand, keeps the scouts on your team supplied with rocket pods and missiles, and pods or clusters are a very efficient way to kill just about anything. If your teammates can kill whatever is shooting at you, you will survive much longer than you would with a crappy 225 shield boost every three seconds.

 

Additionally, your healing becomes less valuable as a match goes on if you don't have the ammo refill talent. When a scout or a strike runs out of ammo, they have to choose between playing with a greatly reduced damage potential or self destructing. This could make a difference in a close game.

 

 

 

 

Strike Tips

 

 

Strike Fighters are underpowered.

Yes, I'm repeating this one. It's worth repeating: Strike Fighters aren't as competitive as the other ships. Keep this in mind.

 

Don't run Charged Plating on your Starguard/Rycer.

You don't get an armor component, so you can't stack Damage Reduction. Try Directional Shield or Quick Charge Shield instead.

 

The Pike/Quell is probably the worst ship in the game.

Lack of mobility, limited choice in missile breaks, and the general difficulty involved in landing a missile leave this ship severely underpowered.

 

You want Repair Probes on your Clarion/Imperium.

As with Tensor Field on the T3 Scout, Repair Probes are the ability that is unique to the Clarion. The other two options aren't very useful in their current state.

 

Choose "Refill Ammunition" as the T5 talent on Repair Probes on a Clarion/Imperium.

The other talent, Shield Restoration, doesn't help you, and it doesn't help your team either. The shield regen only restores 150 shields every four seconds. One hit from stock RFL - the worst weapon in the game - is just under 200 damage. It won't even soak up one hit from the worst weapon. Ammo, on the other hand, keeps the scouts on your team supplied with rocket pods and missiles, and pods or clusters are a very efficient way to kill just about anything. If your teammates can kill whatever is shooting at you, you will survive much longer than you would with a crappy 150 shield boost every four seconds.

 

Additionally, your healing becomes less valuable as a match goes on if you don't have the ammo refill talent. When a scout or a strike runs out of ammo, they have to choose between playing with a greatly reduced damage potential or self destructing. This could make a difference in a close game.

 

 

Edited by DakhathKilrathi
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That was entertaining to read

 

Might I suggest adding "Don't think the drones will do all of the work for you" for Bombers? I have seen plenty of people that think they can just drop mines around a sat and go AFK.

 

They usually learn quickly enough....my slug sees to that

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Great summary of what I see you talking about a lot in game - and what in most parts is common sense in this forum. But I can understand that people want to hop into a game without reading guides about things they have not experienced yet, so you probably will reach only "burned" new players with that.

 

Choose "Refill Ammunition" as the T3 talent on Repair Probes on a Clarion/Imperium

 

 

That is T5 on the Clarion/Imperium, but you are right. Get that one!

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I would contest the statement that strikes are inherently underpowered, if you know how to use it right the basic Starguard/Rycer is a real killing machine, especially with the heavy cannons fully upgraded
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I would contest the statement that strikes are inherently underpowered, if you know how to use it right the basic Starguard/Rycer is a real killing machine, especially with the heavy cannons fully upgraded

If you scroll down, you'll find a thread posted by a dev asking for ways to buff them. They are also the only class that has had events dedicated specifically to flying them, due to people just not feeling comfortable using them without a gentlemen's agreement to have everyone else do so.

 

Just because an ace can wreck newbies in a strike (and any other ship) does not change the basic fact that strikes are severely underpowered. At this point, it is beyond argument.

Edited by MiaowZedong
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I would contest the statement that strikes are inherently underpowered, if you know how to use it right the basic Starguard/Rycer is a real killing machine, especially with the heavy cannons fully upgraded

 

This guide is directed at newer players, though the information it contains is good information at all skill levels. Strikes are not an appropriate choice for new players, because yes, they are underpowered. Even the devs acknowledge this:

 

I’ll be blunt. Strike Fighters need lots of love. The original design is that they are the Jack-of-All and Master-of-None but they have filled out this role too well and because of it are rarely a compelling option. We want to talk about how Strike Fighters can be made into a good option to bring in any match, by any skill level.

 

There isn't any misreading this. In their present state, they need some help. That they can be used to kill less skilled players does not make them a good ship.

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Maybe you want to add a warning for newer players. Almost everyone will have better skill or better gear than them in the beginning and it needs some time and practice, as in every pvp game, to become competitive.
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I would like to add: Line of Sight is very very important in this game. If there is a rock in the way, you aren't going to get hit by whatever is trying to kill you. It turns enemy proton torpedoes from an actual threat to your bomber to an annoying beeping sound which means "fly behind the nearest rock." It turns an enemy railgun shot into an automatic miss-at least, if you wait for the gunship to get bored and try to kill someone else. Enemy drones have to obey line of sight, too: you see a rail sentry charging, put something between yourself and the drone and it can't hit you. It makes enemy scouts fly around the rock to get at you-and if you get good at flying very close to the rock in all those little valleys, it takes one crazy good scout to kill you-or a gunship waiting on the other side with a charged rail pointed at you.

It's also the reason railguns are 1000 times better than torpedoes: if you start charging your railgun at just the right time, all you have to do is release when your target pokes its nose out from behind something, and it gets no lock warning. A torpedo, on the other hand, makes this annoying beeping sound which is really hard to miss and tells your target someone is trying to lock a missile on it, so it knows to seek cover and/or start tabbing through to see who's lighting up their HUD and making that annoying sound.

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I'd suggest that you put in 'reticule goes red when target is in range'. I highly doubt most rookies realise what range their weapon is and watching some strike open up with rfl's at 10k is amusing and irritating at the same time.
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Before you leave, you might make one pass on it to clean up the tone a bit. I'm linking people to it from reddit (because it is concise and accurate), but one has already called it pretty condescending. The first line definitely has no purpose but to set readers on the defensive.
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Thanks for posting this. You've covered all the important stuff, so I don't have anything really useful to add.

 

- In Domination, you only need to hold one satellite when leading 668-334 (or any score where you are more than twice as close to 1000 as the other team... plus a little margin for the kills and deaths). I thought it was obvious, but every now and then I see a frantic chat message or two to indicate otherwise.

 

- You need a reasonably powerful PC to get good frame rates in GSF. If necessary, turn down the shader level, which has the added bonus of making dark rocks easier to see, but Damage Overcharges harder to see from far.

 

- Maybe turn up the monitor's brightness a little to help see those dark rocks.

 

- Good internet connection helps. I can get about 35ms server lag on NA East servers, 75ms on NA West servers, 105ms on European servers. NA West servers are fine for me most of the time, but sometimes the lag keeps going above 150ms and it starts to annoy me. At 300ms or so, I wouldn't bother.

 

- A generic $5 optical mouse could be passable. A gaming mouse does help a bit. A mechanical mouse filled with dust is not going to cut it.

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How to lock a missile:

Get a target within missile range, and inside the missile firing cone. Hold right mouse until the missile locks. Release to fire. If your target breaks line of sight, you lose the lock. If they go out the side or end of your missile firing cone, you also lose the lock.

Once the missile fires, it's like a spell: the only way to break the lock is with a missile lock break ability before it hits.

The flashfire in the tutorial does have the fast-locking cluster missiles, so you can try them there.

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How to lock a missile:

Get a target within missile range, and inside the missile firing cone. Hold right mouse until the missile locks. Release to fire. If your target breaks line of sight, you lose the lock. If they go out the side or end of your missile firing cone, you also lose the lock.

Once the missile fires, it's like a spell: the only way to break the lock is with a missile lock break ability before it hits.

The flashfire in the tutorial does have the fast-locking cluster missiles, so you can try them there.

 

Adding to this: the missle firing cone is in most cases the smaller circle. In case of Heavy Laser Cannon and Concussion Missiles it is the same size, though. This makes it an interesting combination.

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Fortress Shield is a trap. Run Distortion Field or Feedback Shield instead.

I see a lot of gunships running Fortress Shield. This is the worst choice you could make. The usual argument is that it lets you tank things. This is true (though shield piercing exists)... until you move. And you will have to move. Other ships are capable of significant damage output, so either you move, or you die. The trouble with Fortress shield is: when you move, you lose all of the shields it added, and this is subtracted from the shields you have left, whether you took damage or not. You might very well find yourself trying to run with no shields at all, and that makes you an easy kill. You can avoid that by not running, but... well, that also makes you an easy kill.

 

 

Fortress is very good, but must be combined with Rotational Thrusters and Weapon Power Boost. Feedback is useless against enemy GS. Distortion is RNG and not particularly good. I take it, of course, with my scouts, but only because the missiles break. On a Mangler Distortion is worse then Fortress.

 

False statements are not correct when they are processed into new tutorials.:D

Edited by Magira
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Do I detect sarcasm?

 

Nah. Pugism.:D

 

So let's briefly explained. It is totally dependent on the situation, which is just the best.

 

Against organized groups that attack me coordinated, Fortress is weak. Against the usual unorganized PUG team Fortress is almost godlike. I win every duel against Disto GS because I have good shields and can shoot more often. Individual Scouts are not a problem thanks to Rotational Thrusters. Cluster Missiles have not the slightest effect against Fortress.

 

I have not seen a VOIP opponent team more for weeks, so I set up my build where from what is the current reality.

Edited by Magira
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As a scout, if you are using fortress, I will just fullstop behind you and unload with BLCs and pods. You get to choose between standing still and dying, using rotational to face me and forcing me to get behind you and restart the cycle, or running and losing all of your shields on that arc (because of the way your current shields are subtracted when fortress ends).

 

That alone makes fortress a bad choice.

 

Against strikes, you will eat a mess of missiles because you don't have any lock breaks. Against a gunship, you have better odds because fortress is guaranteed and disto is not, but lucky evades will still ruin your day, and that's assuming I don't take the smart course of waiting until you're distracted.

 

And that's the real reason why fortress sucks and disto is good: in a game where a 1v1 is often decided by turning it into a 2v1, fortress has extremely limited use and disto has potentially unlimited use.

 

Of course, you may be able to farm bads with that build. And that's fine, because most fights are against bads (especially, it seems, on your server). But any build can farm bads, and using that build sets up bad habits for competitive matches -- the exact opposite of what this thread is trying to accomplish.

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Of course, you may be able to farm bads with that build. And that's fine, because most fights are against bads (especially, it seems, on your server). But any build can farm bads, and using that build sets up bad habits for competitive matches -- the exact opposite of what this thread is trying to accomplish.

 

It's a game. I've got no ideological or educational ambitions. I always take the build what works best. Even if it is "Cheesy" I do not care. And i am glad that there is no more a Elitist (aka competitive) Scene in GSF. :D

 

BTW: Pod Scouts were actually a problem for Fortress. But also not seen longer.

Edited by Magira
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